Ferment in Ireland as New Report on Sex Abuse Looms

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DUBLIN, IRELAND * As Ireland prepares for yet another damning government report on the Catholic church's handling of the sexual abuse crisis, this one focused on the rural southern diocese of Cloyne, anger in this once almost homogenously Catholic nation continues to fuel calls for fairly sweeping reform.

A conference on the sexual abuse crisis sponsored by the Jesuit-run Milltown Institute in Dublin in early April, for example, heard proposals for revisions to Catholic theology of sexuality and the priesthood, democratizing authority structures in the church, and broader cooperation with civil authorities.

One speaker warned that without such reform, the Catholic church risks "moral bankruptcy."

Public outrage could be glimpsed just outside the gates of the conference site, where a small knot of abuse survivors unfurled a banner denouncing the Catholic church for fielding a "worldwide pedophile army."

In a vintage instance of truth in labeling, the group calls itself "Anti-Catholic Church Activists, Ireland."

Facing that already agitated context, observers say the pending Cloyne report represents something of a wildcard.

On the one hand, the report will almost certainly deepen popular suspiciousness of the church, as it reveals breakdowns that occurred even after the Irish bishops …